Uprooted
by cassicat42
Summary: Juniper wasn't a gamer, but for her friend... she'd do almost anything.


JAlright my lovelies, let's get this show back on the road! I can't thank you all enough for your patience and support, all of you have been nothing but sweet since I started! Shout-out to my lovely betas 666-HyuugaNeji-999 and RyuujiVantek, you both are amazing!

We'll consider this, I don't know, a half-hearted reboot? Not that I made it very far the first time huh? Now though, we're going to get places! AND NO ONE IS GETTIN IN MAH WAY THIS TIME, NOT EVEN MYSELF! There will be a small change in update schedule though! I promise to never go a month without posting at least once, however in order to produce better, longer chapters I cannot do one every week. I hope you will understand!

Just a note, but dear guest AL from 7/9 that wasn't sure what changed... that was because it hadn't been posted yet sweetie. You made me chuckle a bit, I wish you had an account so I could have let you know. :)

* * *

Juniper Baxter couldn't stand the silence of the office. It rang in her ears like a thousand bands playing, mercilessly banging on her ear drums. She tried to focus on anything that was available. The sound of her cubicle mate tapping his pen on his desk. The fan across the room blowing air at the lucky few closest to it. The printer in the break room. Yes, office life was dull. The meager salary they gave her never felt like it was enough to compensate for the pain of a throbbing head.

Closing her eyes, she leaned back to try to relieve the eye strain from the bright computer.

"Hey, Baxter. Need some drugs?" came a voice from behind her. Juniper lazily opened an eye and spun around in the swiveling chair to face the voice. It was her cubicle mate, Suzuki Satoru (the pen tapper) and the man that coincidentally happened to be her best friend. His dark hair brushed against his forehead as he stared at her, waiting for a response. Juniper stared back.

"What... what kind of question is that? Of course. Pass me the ibuprofen." She reached her hand out expectantly as he shook the little white bottle over it. Thanking him, she tossed the little lifesavers into her mouth and swallowed, taking a swig of coffee to put them down. Eyeballing the man next to her, she asked, "Got any plans for tonight? Maybe we can catch a drink?"

The young man smiled at her. "You already know what I have in store for tonight." He pointed at the back of his neck and wiggled his eyebrows. "You should join me instead."

Juniper couldn't help but sigh and shake her head, exasperated at her friend. "Satoru, you know I suck at that kind of stuff. Last game we played I lost 40:1... and I'm pretty sure my one win was because I got you trashed that night." Juniper smiled as she recalled the night that had been spent pumping each other full of booze to wash away the terribly bleak life they both lived. Poisonous but entertaining all the same.

"Baxter, that was Yahtzee... It's not even a skill-based game."

"Yeah I know! It didn't stop me from losing 40 times or writing zeros on your scorecard after you were toasted." Juniper cried, "We've already established how much games HATE me!"

"I KNEW that wasn't a mistake, you cheat!" He shot daggers at her. "Games don't hate you, you just have shit luck. Besides, you owe me!" Juniper raised her eyebrow at the exasperated man. Seeing this reaction, he added, "And if you don't like it you don't have to play anymore."

"You're going to have to do a lot more than that to get me to play with you!"

"Well, what would you say if I picked up the tab the next few times we go out?"

"...You're on the right track." Juniper grinned over at him. "Continue."

"Continue? You want me to go for broke or something? All my paychecks basically go into the game as it is." Satoru slumped over in his chair. "What if I said please?"

"Has that ever worked on me?"

"No. Fine. How about if I let you pick whatever you wanted to do in the game. I won't take over, I'll let you do all the major selections."

Juniper fully rotated in her rolling chair to gage him. _He seems serious._ "...Sold. When do you want me to meet you?" Juniper rolled back to give attention to her screen. The time really didn't matter, it wasn't like she had anything else to do anyway.

Satoru resumed clicking his pen against the table. "How about... 7? Grab a bite before getting to my place. You won't be done for quite a while."

"Whatever, nerd," she countered, "I have immunities to your gameri...ness?" Stuttering and lost for lack of a better word, she flushed slightly when he laughed at her.

"Ms. Baxter and Mr. Satoru," came a stern, booming voice from over the walls of their small cubicle. "Resume your work or I'll make you stay overtime today since your after-work life is more important than your work."

Ringing silence began again almost immediately as her hands resumed typing. She looked down at them.

_I hope I don't get a cramp today. I'm sick of feeling like an old lady._

Flexing her wrists back and forth she relished in the small noise they made in response to being rotated. Curiosity in her eyes, she peeked over at Satoru to see how he was faring. His hands leapt across the keyboard with astounding accuracy, a slight smirk gracing his lips.

_He looks a little too focused..._

She picked up a pencil from her desk and chucked it at him, hitting him on the shoulder. He flashed a smile in her direction before resuming his work, his mind planning over-excitedly about involving his non-gamer friend in his activities.

_He really does love that game, doesn't he?_

Juniper tried to focus on her work, anticipating the evening to come.

* * *

_Walking to Satoru's house is loud. I should have taken a taxi. Damn it get OUT OF MY WAY!_ Juniper swerved to the left, stumbling as she avoided running over a small child walking next to its guardian. The track to get to Satoru's house was, in essence, energy-draining. It was only a few blocks away, but the main stretch that separated them contained a rather large shopping district that was busy basically 24/7. Satoru lived in a dingy apartment complex just beyond the shops on the fourth story.

Juniper cursed again as she almost collided with another stranger, bumping into the wall of a convenience store to avoid running them over. Just to catch her breath for a moment, she leaned her back against the wall and watched as the people passed by. Indifferent, ignoring everyone else as they passed by with their heads bent low to the ground. Juniper fiddled with the straps of her breathing mask as she sighed.

It was no one else's fault but humanity's that the world was like this. Poisoned like wine left out to turn to vinegar, previous generations had left the world to rot. Juniper tilted her head to the sky, greeted by the gray smog that seemed to be ever-present in the sky. It rolled around miles above her head, swirling and taunting her, as if to say, "Haha! You'll never see the real stars! Stick to documentaries!"

"Tsk." Juniper turned her gaze back to the street. Her eyes were captured by a vibrant red billboard across from her, painted onto a blank wall slightly tilted. Juniper's lips moved as she read the white lettering on the advertisement out loud, "Evil is in the eye of the beholder." It was a bulletin for an upcoming romantic horror film.

L_ike every day on this Earth isn't horrifying enough._ Juniper shivered at the chilly air and let out another sigh as she made began her journey to her friend's house once more, darting down an alleyway in hopes to avoid any more people.

* * *

With great relief, Juniper made it to the apartment complex with little to no trouble. A bit out of breath, she began her ascent up the metal stairs, reminiscing for a moment as the sound of her shoes thumping on the stairs sent her on a trip down memory lane.

How many times had Juniper been up and down these very same stairs? Satoru had lived here all his life, staying even after the passing of his mother. _What a lovely woman Mrs. Satoru was._ So hardworking and dedicated. Both were qualities Satoru had inherited, along with the one Juniper admired the most, his loyalty.

Juniper's own family was the opposite. It was true that they had passed since Juniper had come into adulthood, but they hadn't been the kindest of people when they were alive. Between a philandering father and alcoholic mother, Juniper's childhood was filled with memories of missing parental figures.

That did not include her sister, however. Juniper had many fond memories of her younger sibling. As children they did everything together until their parents divorced, sentencing her younger sister to the Americas while Juniper stayed in Japan. It had been hard at the time, but as the years progressed, they had become their own people. Juniper went to college as her sister finished high school. _By now she should be in college herself._

A smile found its way to Juniper's lips as she thought of Satoru. _I never would have become best friends with the nerdiest man alive had none of that happened._

Having reached the door, Juniper raised her fist and gave the white painted wooden door three sharp knocks. It wasn't but a 15-second wait before he answered her rattle. "Hey, you're right on time! I just booted my back-up chair up for you."

Juniper unhooked the mask from her head, hanging it up on the wall next to his as she shook her shoes off at the door. With relief on her face, she pushed past him grinning, happy to be out of the cold air. "Then what do I do till then? How do I warm up my mind to prepare for swinging imaginary swords?"

He shut the door and rolled his eyes at her words, playfully pushing her over onto a couch that sat off-center in the room. A dingy looking coffee table stood in front of it. "I can't wait to make you eat your words. And no... that is definitely not how it works."

"I see.. I see.." Juniper stroked an imaginary beard and leaned forward in the chair, feigning intrigue. "And tell me... what else do I need to know to begin this long journey of fictional adventure?"

"Shut up. Give me one moment and I'll have the headsets synced up." He rolled his eyes at her once more and disappeared into his room down the hall.

Juniper slumped over in her seat and sighed again once he was out of sight. Years of resisting his push to join the game had all come down to this moment, bribery and the hope that she might ONE DAY be able to beat him at his own game. She didn't even have to ask which one he was going to make her play. Yggdrasil was the only one he was obsessed with. A DMMO-RPG fantasy game. When it came out 10 years ago it was the talk of the internet. People scrambled to obtain a copy and start building their empires, it had been so popular that when the company supporting the Japanese servers didn't update on time once, there had been rioting outside their headquarters in Tokyo. Satoru had been a bit late to the game himself; Juniper recalled all the times he worked the first month he played. No amount of empathy from her got him to shut up about being killed.

Everything changed after his first month though. When all the complaining (finally) stopped, Juniper inquired about what had happened. Like it was yesterday she could remember how bright his face had lit up as he told her he'd made some friends, and that he had started playing with them in a group.

"Hey, I'm ready for you back here. Let's get going!" Juniper jumped as he startled her from the depths of her thoughts. She could hear him clap his hands in a beckoning manner from the back bedroom.

_For all he puts up with from me, I can do this for him._

"Hurry up. I'm usually on an hour earlier than this." Satoru raised an eyebrow as Juniper strolled into the room as slowly as she could as if she were being weighed down by chains. Waiting patiently as she took her last few steps to stand next to the setup, he went back to rummaging around in the underside of the chairs. The padded metal loungers sat next to each other, the headsets on the middle of them.

"I hate that it took you this long to get invested in this with me." Satoru could be heard sighing from underneath the chairs. "Would it really have been that difficult to just play with me?"

Juniper sniffed. "Yes, I can't just give you what you want. That would make life boring."

Another sigh emitted from him.

Juniper picked up the helmet that resided on the lounge closest to her and inspected the visor. Shiny and straight as it was, when she curiously flipped it upside down, the inside looked like something she could only compare to a horror movie. Sensors and wires ran all along the inside and led out into one long, thick cord that seemed to connect to the chair. Horrified, she picked at the tangled mess of cables.

_There is no way I'm putting this on._

She glanced past the first chair to the second... only to notice how much nicer his headset was. That one not only looked nicer but also looked like it was less likely to give her a death sentence via electric shock. In a split-second decision, Juniper scrambled for it, stretching her short arms in an attempt to grab it before Satoru noticed.

She wasn't fast enough though. Even longer arms from the taller man grabbed the headset before she got to it and raised it high in the air for insurance. "What are you doing, crazy?"

"You must be out of your mind! There is no way I am using that murder helmet!" she exclaimed. "Have you seen that thing? It looks like a middle-schooler's failed tech project! It could blow up any minute..."

"I looked up a tutorial to make a functioning headset. It'll be fine!"

"Fine! Fine? Look at this and tell me what is wrong!" Juniper held up the contraption and exaggeratedly gestured at the wiring.

"Well I already tested it and I didn't die," Satoru said with eyebrows raised. The rest of his meaning went unspoken but Juniper heard it loud and clear- _'Don't be such a chicken'._ Still keeping the pristine headset out of her range, he reached over her and grabbed the murder machine from her hands. "Do you trust me?"

Juniper hesitated. _He's never hurt me before._ She sighed. "Yeah, I trust you."

He put the helmet on her head and pushed it on firmly. "Plug it in and lie down."

"Ugh." She grumbled and begrudgingly submitted to his instruction. Grabbing the thick rope of cable and inserting the plug into her neck, she laid down and adjusted the cord around her head. She couldn't see through the visor but could hear Satoru rummaging around, tinkering with something. "What are you doing... I thought you wanted to get started asap." She teased, "It's not too late to switch headsets with me!"

All she could hear was him snickering as he started to fiddle with her headset, turning her head to the side to check that the port was connected. "No way in hell. And we'll be online in just a moment, I just want to hook our headsets up together. I need to guide you through the opening character creation and scenes, young one." He patted her on the helmet sarcastically.

"Aaaaaaand here we go!" His excitement quivered in his voice. The visor clicked on and the power started flowing. Juniper instantly could feel the surge of energy that displaced her vision before a rainbow of colors flowed into her sight. All shades swirled around her as she was sucked into the vortex and deposited onto a flat platform. The colors moved away from her, making makeshift walls with their ever-moving form. It was akin to being in a room in the middle of a river. Not a moment more passed before another platform materialized with the figure of her friend on it. He grinned at her chest, wiggling his eyebrows.

"My eyes are up here, doofus!" Juniper yelped. She tried to cover up her chest before realizing that there wasn't anything to cover up.

"I can't see you, idiot! You've never played a game with me so I don't have your virtual body uploaded! You're essentially a ghost to me!" he snapped back, shrugging his shoulders.

Juniper looked around the trippy room, warily looking past the platform to the floor. It was hard to tell where it ended, if she didn't have seizures before she was going to have some now. "OK, so what do I do?"

"Nothing for now. Just sit back and watch!" The grin seemed permanently glued to his face as he popped his knuckles and clicked invisible buttons.

The room immediately went dark, color melting away into a gray and then black. Juniper waited in the void only for a moment before a dim light began to glow from beneath her. It escalated in brightness as it revealed a vibrant green field and bright blue sky. Her eyes widened at the realism; scenery Juniper could only see in documentaries suddenly alive before her. Bees calmly buzzed past her invisible torso in search of flowers as the grass swayed in the breeze, teased by the invisible force of nature. The wind moved the clouds miles above her head, casting a shadow on her face. If she didn't know better, she could have felt the warmth from the virtual sun, the caress of the wind as it danced past her. From out of nowhere but still somehow fitting the scenery perfectly, giant words appeared before her spelling out the game's title in a large, exaggerated font.

YGGDRASIL

Juniper had to take everything in for a moment before addressing Satoru, who patiently waited for her to come out of her dumbfounded state. Shaking her nonexistent head, she spoke finally.

"Ok, so I'm here. And you know what? I have to give you credit where credit is due. If the rest of the game looks this good you just might be onto something." She couldn't lie to the man - the impressively realistic opening looked like someone had pushed her into the past. Still in awe at the realism, she looked over to Satoru for instruction.

"Jesus Christ!" she shrieked, jumping at the sight that greeted her eyes. There was no longer the tall dark-haired nerd she had known for years as her best friend. In his place stood a massive cloaked skeleton at least twice her height. Long black robes draped close to the floor, its external trim on the hood and sleeves gold with the inward hem along its sternum purple. Red glowing eyes peered out like small fires from under the dark hood and its fingers each had their own ring. A glowing red orb could be seen in the lower part of its ribcage.

"Baxter, it's me!" The skeleton turned towards her, robes flowing around it. "My username here is Momonga."

Trying to regulate her breathing, she confirmed that that was indeed Satoru's voice coming out of the magic skeleton. Inspecting the assembly of bones, Juniper observed the lettering above its head. It read out 'MOMONGA LVL 100'.

"Why are you a skeleton, out of everything you could have been?" Her heart still pounded in her chest from the scare. "How does anyone recognize you?"

"Well," he explained, "I don't want to be recognized, I want to be someone new. I'll make you a body and a charact-" he paused. "I mean you will make yourself a character so you can pick what you want to look like."

"Yea-huh. Alrighty then, but why a skeleton?"

"Ah, I am actually an Overlord, a step beyond Elder Lich which is a step beyond skeletal mage. It's a heteromorphic race option, we get big boosts in stats but also major weaknesses. I just wanted to be one I suppose, no specific reason behind my choice." he told her with elation. A smiley face emoji popped up next to his face, letting her know how happy he was that she was doing this with him. Juniper hummed in response to his explanation, feigning understanding.

"Ok... So, let me educate you about this." He dropped his hands as giant flags waved around her with symbols embroidered onto them, each a unique color. "The first race is human. These are your basic people. They are boring and mean and you're not choosing them. Right behind them are the demi-humans, they make a well-rounded character build."

"Oh, well thanks dad. Just tell me which one to pick so I don't have to hear you nerd out."

"I thought you wanted to pick your own stuff."

Juniper made a face at him, temporarily forgetting he still couldn't see her. "Just do it."

"Easy then. You're with me. You'll be heteromorphic. That way you can join my guild eventually!"

"Psh, as if! I have to beat you at something eventually! However, I will let you have the privilege of selecting... whatever that is." The three flags multiplied into 30 or 40, each with their own emblems. "What are these?"

"These are the races you can pick from!"

"Races? I thought we just picked that."

Satoru looked over to her invisible form, an exasperated sigh emitting from him yet again. "You- I- Ugh. You're something else. Baxter, that's a race category, and this is the actual race. Just... tell me what you want. If you could do anything, what would you do?"

"That's easy. I want laser eyes." Juniper laughed at herself. "Did you know I wanted to be Cyclops when I was little?"

"That's hilarious... and I can do that but it doesn't have much to do with your race...more to do with what spells you select. Pick something else." The skeleton snorted.

"Why'd you ask then? Well, second best would be flying. With actual wings - like a bird! Who hasn't wanted to soar through the sky before?" Satoru shuffled around on his invisible keyboard again. The options limited themselves to a dozen or so. She read through them._ Braineater... I don't want to know... Demon... Dragon... blah blah blah..._

"What has wings that's not terrifying?" The options shuffled around once more. "Angel?" Juniper inquired about the option closest to her that waved in the virtual breeze.

"Yes!" Satoru clicked on it. An image came into existence where the race names had once been. It appeared to be a basic human with wings and white robes. "That race has two transformations. The first is humanoid looking, simple wings attached to the avatar. The second is..." Another gesture on his keyboard. "This!"

The second image portrayed a taller humanoid, although Juniper couldn't tell if it truly had gained height or wore heels. The entire figure seemed a bit more complex than the last, but still preserved a degree of simplicity. The face became shielded with something resembling a cross. Wings became larger and seemed to be made of metallic material.

"And the third?" Juniper prompted, genuinely curious at this point.

"That one is determined by your karma. So, essentially how evil or good you are. You get to choose your karmic rating to start off with and then the game moves it further towards positive or negative depending on your items and actions. These are only options too, they require that you invest some levels in shapeshifting."

"I have no idea what that means... but karma? What karma are you?"

"I'm... basically as evil as they come. Don't worry, I'll take care of your levels and the like."

Juniper laughed, "You really went for your polar opposite, didn't you." Her invisible gaze looked at the second transformation again, surveying it up and down. It looked acceptable.

"I guess... this is ok!"

"You're the one selecting it, so you better be sure." Her skeletal friend turned towards her, a suspicious looking emoji popping up next to his face.

"I'm sure! Geez, don't make this so ominous, it's just another game!"

"It may be another game to you, Baxter, however," He raised his hands once more and summoned his keyboard. "It's more than a game to me. This place has functioned as my second home in a way, the people in the guild like a second family." He raised a bony hand to his head, rubbing the skull in a bashful manner.

Juniper watched with invisible eyes at his movements, a pang of something she didn't recognize coursing through her. She brushed it aside as Satoru continued.

"Give me one second and I'll make it look like you. You can change it as you like after. I'd usually walk you through everything, but they're doing a system update on some minor things and I want to be able to check them out before anyone else has a chance to take advantage of them. Sometimes bugs can work in your favor. Besides I promised you that I would let you do all the major selections." He went back to typing on his platform. With nothing else to do, Juniper took a moment to observe the other races. If she was to be an angel then what did the demon look like? Juniper glared at the demon option, cursing the fact that she still had no hands to select it.

"Can you click the demon race? I just want to read it." Satoru grunted in response as the category expanded open in front of her eyes. The first transformation was a normal humanoid looking woman with leathery wings. The second had more options. So basically... it was a lizard lady. The avatar in the picture had the head of a green frog thing... the text called it an imp. The third transformation was up to its karmic level as well. There was an asterisk next to the blank third transformation screen. Referring to the bottom of the page, it claimed that demons automatically started with a negative karmic value, and could not go into the positive._ If demons are naturally evil, then it stands to reason that Angels are naturally good, right?_ Juniper squinted to read the tiny writing in the angel panel of her screen.

It read:

*Angels are naturally positive karmic heteromorphic beasts; however, they can easily fall into the negative. Falling into the negative as an Angel will have adverse side effects on your character. *

"All done! Look at yourself now!" Suzuki proudly proclaimed, "I think you'll like what I did!"

_Yes, hands! _Juniper tore her eyes off the text to look down, wiggling her fingers excitedly. She flexed them out just as her skeletal friend did and succeeded in summoning her own invisible keyboard. Bottom right included a button that read 'mirror'. Clicking on it, she examined herself with awe.

In that moment, it made sense why Satoru wanted to be something else. How tempting it could be. It was still her... but it wasn't her at the same time. Eagerly, Juniper reached to touch a wing, bending the flexible appendage around her. They looked like they'd be the softest things she'd ever felt, if she could feel in a virtual game.

The clothes were exactly like the avatar in the example as well. White robes with gold trim around the hems. They flowed just above her ankles, waving around her legs as the breeze shuffled the clean fabric about. Her sleeves were open and left room to move about freely. The whole thing was held together with a golden sash tied around her hips to close the robe against her body. Again, Juniper had to admit it - she looked incredible. Satoru had literally gotten everything down, the face looked just like she did in real life. Her avatar's figure looked superb as well. Not too skinny, she had a little meat on her bones. Dark, straight hair and... amazing hips.

"Aw, Satoru! I'm so flattered you think I look like this in real life!" She waved a hand at him and threw him a flirty wink. "You shouldn't have!"

His avatar stared at her. "That is literally what you look like in real life, Baxter... And call me Momonga. Calling each other by our names is weird online."

Juniper saluted the senior player in a silly fashion. "Sure thing cap'n!"

He rubbed his temple. "Just click configure options by the right side of the mirror. I'm going to get going, you're killing me. I'll see you at the spawn point. Don't forget to make a username... you can pick your first job class when you spawn in." He waved his hand dismissively at her, apparently exhausted by her plethora of energy.

"Whatever, bye." She waved her new hand at him to go away. In an instant he was gone and she was left to her own devices. Clicking through the options, Juniper got to work.

_I don't want to change my figure... yes. A little bit of this and a little bit of that... yes that's nice. Ooh purple!_ It didn't take too long for her to become satisfied with her looks. Originally brown hair was now a light lavender. Once flat, it now held a slight beach wave to it. She'd customized her wings to be a bit longer- just enough for the lengthier flight feathers to kiss the ground slightly. There were even options to select tattoos, which she did in earnest. Tattoos were expensive in real life, so Juniper relished in the opportunity to select a floral design that started at the wrist of her left arm and worked its way to elegantly flow off her collarbone.

_I wonder if I can undress myself..._ Juniper looked left and right quickly, double-checking that she was alone before proceeding. She clicked off as many clothes as she could, only stopping when the system flashed a 'no mature content' warning.

_...that makes sense. It would have freaked me out if Satoru knew what I looked like under everything._ Juniper concluded she looked pretty cool as she confirmed her character's getup.

A scale popped up in front of her, appearing out of thin air. _Karmic value?_ Juniper cocked her head to the side as she stared at it. She honestly hadn't even really thought about it. Well, angels are supposed to be good but... Juniper stared at the scale. It was nice of the developers to add the scales of justice into this, a unique nod to Egyptian mythology. Juniper reached out to play with the scales, like a child with a new toy.

It refused to budge. She frowned and tried to move it again. Nothing. In fact, her hand phased right through it.

_What the hell?_ Of course the game was broken to hell.

"Just like Yahtzee." Juniper hissed. _Whatever, I don't need this, it sounds dumb anyway._ She assumed it was possible to change her karma later on, the note had suggested it was possible anyway, so no harm done. She clicked confirm. Almost instantly the field surrounding her dissipated, fading into gray like she was losing consciousness. When the room was completely dark, a single question remained in white lettering.

USERNAME:

She... also hadn't given this any thought. Even though she'd had an entire work day and a brisk walk, the thought honestly hadn't crossed her mind. She pondered in the dark. _Wow, it really is hard to come up with stuff on the spot. I'm nowhere near as creative as Satoru... Momonga,_ she corrected. _My normal name would be just fine, right?_

USERNAME: Juniper.


End file.
